Tastefully modded Lambretta GP 200 with a Monza 225 lump and a ton of sporty upgrades. Numbers & Logos are laser cut vinyls and can be removed with a hair dryer if not required. A £7k build, Yours for a Classified Ad price of £5,295.00 on eBay
One item of scooterists wear it’s hard to avoid is the classic MA1 flight jacket. This took over from the ubiquitous fishtail parka – sometime in the early eighties I suppose. It’s easy to see why, it’s inexpensive, warm, casual and with enough pockets to easily stash the stuff you need to get access to. It’s also a great platform for stitching all your SC regalia and Paddy Smith run patches onto. Not a lot of crash protection, and not terribly waterproof, so a lot of riders will pack waterproofs, or upgrade to a ‘proper’ motorcycle jacket, or a classic waxed jacket for hardcore riding. For everyday riding, though slinging on a MA1 is quick and easy. Here’s a few I’ve found, with my thoughts.
As with everything in life, you usually want to avoid the cheapest. Quality usually suffers! There are bargains to be had online however… and this jacket has all the features you look for in an MA1 with a bargain basement price. Available in the classic scooterist ‘sage’, ‘petrol’ (my colour of choice) ‘burgundy’, and black. There is also a white one, which I’m sure is a fine fashion colour (if you want to look like an astronaut or a member of East 17) but less than practical for scooter riding.
A step up in price is the genuine article, the classic MA1 from the original manufacturers, Alpha Industries. 95% of people won’t notice the subtle differences between this jacket and the ‘entry level’ one posted before, but it’s the 5% that will that matters, right? At the time of writing you can pick one up on Amazon for under (just under!) a £100, so they are not that unaffordable.
Alpha Industries Olive/Sage MA1 Flight Pilot Bomber Jacket Sizes XS – XXL
As well as the classic MA1, here’s a variant of the jacket that I have owned, and I think I actually prefer. The CWU 45 has spacious patch pockets and a proper collar instead of the knitted one of the MA1. And I think you can get away with one in black without looking like you’re a neo-nazi.
Alpha Industries CWU 45 Flight Jacket – Colour Black
They look good in Gunmetal too…
Alpha Industries Alpha CWU 45 Flight Jacket – Gunmetal Size 2XL (46-48)
Have you got a favourite riding jacket? Let me know.
Interesting decor in the Vinyl Bar in London’s Hanway Street. W1T 1UP.
Open Monday to Saturday 5pm till 2:30am
The gents toilets are particularly interesting!
More on their website… where if you sign up for a membership, you could win “A brand new Lambretta scooter” (no further details available at the moment, but I suspect it’s an LN).
Not quite sure what this video is actually trailing, but it’s one to keep an eye on.
I always keep an eye on eBay; just to see if there is anything interesting or unusual that would benefit from a post on the blog. Often it’s quite uninspiring… but then sometimes theres a run of scooters that just “do it” for me… Here are a trio of Lammies, all a bit different from the ‘run of the mill’ that are up on eBay at the moment.
Firstly, this rather tasty pink GP…
A guaranteed headturner /conversation starter! Here’s the eBay link
Next, another love it or hate it colour… chocolate brown… It’s a bit of a 70’s/80’s thing. 
If that floats your boat, here’s the link to that one<img style=”text-decoration:none;border:0;padding:0;margin:0;” src=”http://rover.ebay.com/roverimp/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?ff3=2&pub=5575075368&toolid=10001&campid=5337446923&customid=&item=291370650312&mp
Finally, for now, here’s “General Lee” a nicely put together “Southern” themed cutdown TS1. I’m guessing the builder of this watched a bit of “Dukes of Hazard” back in the day…
That’s the seller notes in the eBay description. Two words. “Been modified”. You could say that! And in the description: “BEEN MADE A LOT SMALLER THAN A STANDARD LI150” You could say that! This would be a fun novelty scooter to have a part of a Lambretta collection.
Came across this pukka 1958 NSU Prima 150D on Gumtree. At A$3000… it’s a deal, it’s a steal, it’s sale of the flipping’ century… as ever, just flagging it up not recommending, buyer beware and all that yada yada yada.
It’s in Adelaide, South Australia. Here’s the Gumtree Link.
I’ll get back to posting about real Lambretta’s soon, promise!
Enjoy riding your noisy, dirty, smelly 2stroke while you can ladies and gentlemen. It’s just a matter of time before classic scooters are consigned to “collections” and legislated out of existence… and we’ll all be sitting in our robot driven hydrogen fuel-celled Google cars… maybe. Or maybe the future is electric vehicles… we’ve already seen an Electric Lambretta… and a production scooter from a company with a heritage in classic scoots and electric vehicles is on the way. Albeit a heritage I had absolutely no idea about until yesterday.
First, a bit of history
Lohner was an Austrian company. G’day! No. Read it again. Austrian. Around 1900 they were producing electric cars… designed by a certain Ferdinand Porsche. Ahead of the curve there! After a rocky history, and diversifying into many other vehicles such as trams and aircraft… like many companies in the early fifties tried to get in on the booming scooter market. The most well known of these scooters was the Lohner 125 (pictured above). I say it was well known… but it’s a scooter that’s new to me. To my eyes… despite following the germanic “roller” style of having the large enclosed front end incorporating the legshields and mudguard… I’ve seen uglier scooters. After merging with Rotax, who made the engines, they left scooter production behind and became involved in the production of agricultural, military and commercial vehicles. Eventually they were bought by Bombardier.
Now, the future?
Well, the Lohner name, and scooter is back. From what I can gather from the website, members of the original Lohner family are still very much involved. And in looking to the future they looked to their company heritage for inspiration. What they have come up with is a “new class vehicle”… the Lohner Stroler… a radical looking e-biike – and probably of more interest to readers of this blog, the Lohner LEA. The Roller LEA is a twenty-first century reincarnation of the 1950’s original L125-Roller. 
Pretty cool, huh? It’s got that retro thing going with a hint modern hot-rod aesthetic… while giving a big nod to their heritage. A tough trick to pull off, looking funky, modern and old school all at once.
The LEA will go into production in the spring, and is a available for pre-order right now.
Find out more, including full specifications on the website.
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